Garcia's major concern is still lingering

You might not believe this -- and Tiger Woods probably never did -- but 10 years ago, we couldn't be sure whether Woods or Sergio Garcia would become the better golfer.

Ten years ago, Tiger and Sergio dueled down the stretch at the PGA Championship at Medinah. Tiger was 23 and, for all his marketing success, had won only one major, the 1997 Masters.

Sergio was 19, brash, enormously talented and perhaps just as charismatic as Woods.

At Medinah, while Woods gritted his teeth, Garcia made the most flamboyant shot of the tournament. With his ball nestled against the root of a huge oak tree on the right side of the 16th fairway on Sunday, Garcia took a 6-iron and, facing the possibility of breaking every bone in his hands, closed his eyes at impact and ripped an otherwordly fade to the left side of the green.

Garcia sprinted down the fairway and executed a scissor-kick leap to see where his ball landed, wrapping all of his exuberance and promise into a video clip that marked him as golf's next big thing.

Then he came down to Earth and Tiger held him off, earning the victory that propelled him into one of the greatest golf seasons of all time, winning three majors in 2000. Ten years after Medinah, the major victory total stands at Woods 14, Garcia 0.

Wednesday, between practice sessions in preparation for the PGA at Hazeltine, Garcia almost meekly acknowledged Woods' superiority. "I don't know, I mean, if you look down at the numbers, unfortunately for us, I don't think Tiger's got a rival at the moment," Garcia said. "And he's not letting down. So he keeps playing really well. And you know, to be able to win an average of five, six or seven events a year is very, very impressive. It's not like he plays 35 or 40 tournaments a year, either. It's impressive to see what he does, yeah."

To become Tiger's foil, you occasionally have to foil Tiger. While Woods has grown into an iconic champion, Garcia has let his emotions, and a few majors, get away from him.

He has complained about Augusta National; spit in the cup after making a putt at Doral; whined about weather conditions, golf officials, tee times favoring Tiger, bad breaks and enemies real and perceived; and at Bethpage Black in the 2002 U.S. Open, he waggled and regripped his club so frequently that New Yorkers taunted him. Some counted his waggles, one even doing so in Garcia's native tongue -- "uno, dos, tres." Some simply screamed, "Hit the bawl, Sergi-O!"

When you become the perceived "Best Golfer Never To Win a Major," you can get rid of the title one of two ways -- by winning one or by lowering expectations. Garcia has tried both.

A par putt on the 72nd hole of the 2007 British Open would have beaten Padraig Harrington; his narrow miss left him in a playoff that he lost, having led by four strokes earlier in the day.

When the ball trickled left of the hole, Garcia acted as if the golfing gods had betrayed him. Wednesday, asked what was missing from his major performances, Garcia said: "Well, what is missing, I don't know. I think if I were to aim a putt an inch farther right, nothing would have been missing in one of them.

"I think that when I'm playing well, there is nothing missing. When I'm struggling, then obviously there's things that can be better. But it happens to everyone.

"So like I said before, the only thing I can do is to keep giving myself chances, and keep believing that I am capable of winning one, not only one, and I know if I do that, it will happen sometime."

This is the last major before Garcia turns 30. He has won seven times on the PGA Tour and six times on the European Tour and has excelled in Ryder Cup play. He, like Colin Montgomerie and Lee Westwood, is a talented European who has failed to win a major.

"I played a lot with Sergio, including 10 years ago at the PGA, when he hit the shot with his eyes closed," said Stewart Cink, who won the British Open a month ago. "Well, I was the other one in the group that no one remembers. So I remember the next week, being interviewed about Sergio and calling him a breath of fresh air.

"... He's got a tremendous game. Obviously, I think it goes without saying that his putting and his difficulties with putting have held him back in some big tournaments. But I've heard that a lot lately about Sergio, and being the one now who I guess is sort of the guy who might be one of the best players never to have won a major.

"But I see him hit balls, and I see the confidence that he has in the Ryder Cup and the fun-loving nature, and I just don't think that will last very long. I think he'll get one."

Maybe there's a tree root at Hazeltine with Garcia's name on it. Maybe we'll see him airborne again.

Jim Souhan can be heard Sundays from 10 a.m.-noon on AM-1500 KSTP. • jsouhan@startribune.com